President Trump is seeking to unleash the full power of the federal government to punish Americans who do not share his political views.
It is a step toward the single-party state of an autocracy. It is chilling. It is very likely illegal on many levels. And for a man who loves to wrap himself in the American flag, it is among the most profoundly un-American acts ever proposed or perpetrated by a citizen of this country.
This week alone, he announced two initiatives that seek to make Americans pay a high price for supporting the Democratic Party. First, in a social media post, he announced is targeting cities “such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York” which he described as “the core of the Democrat Power Center” for more of his draconian anti-immigration raids. He asserts—falsely—that in such cities Democrats “use illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State.”
Continuing the post, he asserts, “These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities—And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them.” He condemns Democrats for supporting “Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody and Men playing in Women’s Sports” and asserts those beliefs are the reasons he wants “ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities.”
The president is not beating around the bush. He is explicit that the reason he wants to target these cities and subject them to the kind of tactics that have made ICE reviled and fueled demonstrations from coast to coast is because they are the home to people who did not vote for him, who do not see the world as he does. Admittedly his assertions are all lies. No Democrats believe in “open borders” or making everyone transgender.
Being a Democrat is not, as he asserts, a mental illness or a sign someone hates our country. But none of that matters both because the truth never matters to him and because facts are immaterial to his goal, which is to send a message to voters in these cities that they will be penalized for supporting Democrats and, conversely, that the best way to avoid punishment by the federal government is to support Trump and the Republican Party.
The statement would be outrageous enough, but it is not simply one of Trump’s dyspeptic late-night posts, lashing out at America as a manifestation of whatever inner demons keep him up, posting on social media while the country tries to sleep. It is part of a pattern of actions that make it clear, Trump will use every tool at his disposal to torment his opponent and to intimidate voters who might oppose the GOP in 2026 and 2028.
Indeed, what is perhaps an even more egregious manifestation of Trump’s serial abuses of power was subsequently revealed when multiple media outlets reported that new rules at the Veterans Administration allow hospitals and medical professionals to “refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats.” Furthermore, according to The Guardian, “doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity.”
The basis for the new rules is traced to a Trump executive order promulgated at the end of January entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” This was one of the first, but hardly among the last of administration initiatives actively penalizing individuals and institutions for opposing Trump.
These have included threats made to block law firms from doing business with the federal government because they were affiliated with individual lawyers that participated in cases against Trump, targeting universities for “DEI” programs which of course cover a range of ideas and ideals associated with Democrats, blocking funding to doctors and scientists whose research focus is associated with ideas linked to Democrats like combating climate change to gender-related research to, well, sadly, actually practicing medicine or scientific research based on facts. (Science, medicine, concern for our environment, equal opportunity, promoting the stories of heroes of color or who were women, in short, many of the tenets a rational person might associate with being a decent human being, are beliefs that Trump is seeking to use the power of the federal government to stamp out.)
As reported here frequently, programs that promote ideas opposed by Trump and the extremists in his administration are being shut down and scrubbed at museums, in libraries and in cultural institutions across the country. Sending in the Marines and the National Guard to suppress dissent is another egregious form of this anti-democratic, un-Constitutional effort to strip away Americans’ fundamental freedoms of speech, assembly and to vote for whomever they choose.
Foreigners, in this country legally or seeking to enter the country in ways that are fully compliant with the law, are being subjected to similar screening, with those who have written articles or posted items on social media critical of Trump being detained or turned away.
Make no mistake about it, this is what dictators do.
These are steps that send a message to Americans that they will be harassed, targeted, and punished for openly expressing views contrary to the administration. It is no exaggeration to say that such measures are consistent with the actions of the Nazis, the Soviet Union and police states throughout history.
A decision by a federal court in Massachusetts to declare “void and illegal” ideologically-based cuts in grants issued by the National Institutes of Health was also issued on Monday (and reported by Stat News), illustrating both the efforts to push back on Trump’s abuses and the grounding in law of such initiatives. Nonetheless, while many such decisions are being contested, it will be many months or perhaps years before final decisions reversing many of Trump’s actions may be reached.
In the meantime, of course, the would-be “strongman” in the White House is continuing to reveal his inner weakness and fear of those who are rejecting his lies, corruption, recklessness, and indecency by flexing his muscles. Regardless therefore of court rulings, the administration’s campaign against the very system via which they gained power will continue.
It is illiberal democracy in action. For Americans who seek to preserve our fundamental freedoms, there can be only one response. It is the one that has already been manifested in the streets of the cities targeted by Trump and in over 2000 municipalities across America. It is the one that led over five million of us, our friends and neighbors, to stand up and say, “No kings. We will not be intimidated.”
Because as in the first days of this country we are once again being called upon to demonstrate that not only does power in a democracy flow from the people, that all elected officials report to all of those people, but that in the end, the final defenders of that democracy will not be public officials, institutions or courts. It will be each of us, acting together, on behalf of those “certain inalienable rights” with which we have been endowed, as the Declaration of Independence asserts, not by those in power but by our Creator.
The post Opinion: Why Trump’s Unhinged War on Democrats Threatens Democracy Itself appeared first on The Daily Beast.
